Sports writer for The Age

The Lindsay Thomas ''bump'' saga is dead and buried as far as North Melbourne coach Brad Scott and Collingwood counterpart Nathan Buckley are concerned, but Kevin Bartlett says the laws of the game committee must take a stand.

Scott said on Thursday that any angst still simmering between the two former Collingwood assistant coaches was now buried after Buckley made a phone call to both himself and Thomas this week.

Nathan Buckley and Brad Scott tangle during their playing days. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo

The Collingwood coach sparked a war of words with North Melbourne counterpart Brad Scott in the postscript to Sunday’s game between the two sides, calling Thomas’ hit on Reid "pretty average" and then accusing the Roos forward of "faking" the effect he felt from the accidental head clash - something he took back publicly the next day.

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Thomas was cleared of any wrongdoing for his bump by the match review panel, an outcome that has been slammed by commentators and caused widespread confusion among clubs.

"It's important that we all move on, but Nathan I think has made a retraction of his remarks, and he forced me to defend one of my players which I'll do 100 per cent of the time," Scott said.

"When you cast aspersions over opposition players it's never a good thing, but when that criticism is wrong it makes it even worse,’’ he said.

"To Nathan's eternal credit, he's called me (and) he's apologised to me, which I didn't think he had to do.

"He apologised to me and to our football club, but more importantly he rang Lindsay Thomas and apologised to him.

"So I think that speaks volumes for the type of person he is."

Kevin Bartlett, a member of the laws of the game committee, said he had been disturbed by the amount of confusion the MRP’s ruling on the Thomas had created among players and coaches, and conceded his committee needed to act soon.

"I think we’ve got to do something about that, in terms of players being knocked out off the ball," he said on SEN radio on Thursday.

"I don’t think we can have a season where players and coaches are confused, particularly when it comes to players getting reported or suspended or getting knocked out," he said.

"I think at the next laws of the game committee meeting we’ve got to clarify quite quickly and clearly to clubs and supporters and everyone involved in the game, what you can do and what and cant do."

In clearing Thomas, the MRP could have set a precedent that accidental head clashes would be excused from now on if the instigator did not leave the ground.

On Wednesday, Richmond coach Damien Hardwick also called for the AFL to take action on the issue.

Collingwood chief executive Gary Pert added his voice to those calling for the league to review its stance on the bump.

"We certainly don’t want to be seeing other incidents like that," Pert said on the Thomas-Reid bump, which left the Collingwood player with a bloodied mouth and in doubt for this week’s blockbuster against Carlton because of a concussion.

"I think there is another element to it with junior competitions, the VFL and the country leagues - there are lots of teams and associations watching the leadership the AFL plays in these sorts of roles," he said.

"And I just don’t think we want to see any circumstance where players are getting knocked out, whether it’s accidental or deliberate.

"I know there have been policies put in place previously that really made the players think twice about how they attacked the player, especially when they were going to be potentially blindsiding them."